Back in black

Five of this year's black Pencil winners at the D&AD Awards have social conscience at their core, from a sustainable lamp to a robot that signs a petition to support sufferers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

The epic split

Sweetie

CSPD 2012 annual report

The most powerful arm

Sound of Honda/Ayrton. Senna 1989

GravityLight

Improving safety and comfort on train platforms

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An attendee’s view

Campaign asked me to write about last week’s D&AD Awards, before telling me that it had to be done the next morning. So, not wishing to disappoint, I took along my A4 pad to make notes. So, with that in mind, I attempted to decode my scrawl.

"No comedian to bite the hand that feeds. Zzzzz."

"Tim Lindsay looks like Paul McGann with Van Damme’s chin."

"WTF is Ayrton Senna thing all about?" is smeared with the main course of beef plimsoll. Black Pencil.

And, on another page, the word "SCAM" is biro-chiselled and still visible under the – what is that exactly – beetroot? Blood?

"VS Train posters, beautiful and brilliant." Black Pencil.

Then our BITC skip ad got beaten by some utter chip-shoppery. Just one word here: "Fuckhammers."

Ah. Harvey Nicks. A brand close to my heart. Just when it was looking a tad last season, it has struck yellow with "sorry, I spent it on myself". The in-store product ideas accessorise this into must-have advertising. Yellow Pencil.

And the "SCAM"? Oh yes.

The IBM posters. Made for juries. French work. French city. English copy. Zut alors!

Another boozy doodle: "r we juging actual idea or entry flm?" For me, the award for best entry film went to Droga5, "recalling 1993". The award for best actual idea went to Nineteen Eighty-Four book cover. Yellow Pencils all round.

"Too many issues, too few brands." I learned that war/paedophilia/torture are bad things. They win lots of awards, though.

How an excruciating seven-month quest for an idea Steve Jobs didn't hate gave birth to one of the funniest, most effective campaigns in Apple's history, told by the writers, crew and actors who created it 10 years ago.